A year ago, with scandals and embarrassments swirling around Massachusetts state politics, the Phoenix tossed some well-deserving pols on the flames in our first annual Memorial Day political roast. I'm pleased that I've been invited back — and thanks to all of you who made a call to Probation Commissioner JOHN O'BRIEN to make it happen! (Don't worry, your campaign checks are in the mail!)

Yes, it's the traditional start of summer — when it's finally warm enough for Martha Coakley to shake some hands in front of Fenway.

Hey, Bay State politics is a never-ending source of comedy. So sit back, remember the three-drink minimum — you'll need it! — and laugh to keep from crying.

Seeing eye to eyeHow about this Probation Department scandal, huh? For years, the state legislature has refused to move the department to the governor's control — as it works in 49 other states, and as it works for virtually every other aspect of law enforcement — citing concerns about "separation of powers." We now know that this means the separation from the legislature of the power of patronage.

As soon as the Boston Globe reported the seamy situation, in brutal detail, legislators sprung into action — leaping forward to pretend to be surprised. Horrors! We never knew!

As for doing anything about it . . . well, let's not get crazy. House Speaker ROBERT DELEO says we shouldn't do anything hasty until a full investigation can be completed. Which, incidentally, was what he said when voting to re-elect Sal DiMasi as Speaker last year. His judgment is clearly sound!

That's also been DeLeo's justification for keeping DiMasi's sidekick, THOMAS PETROLATI — who is center stage in the probation scandal — in the bogus, DiMasi-invented, $15,000-a-year pro tempore position.

Petrolati is expected to be called to testify if and when DiMasi and his pal RICHARD VITALE go to trial on their criminal charges. Prosecutors say that Petrolati had a suspicious number of conversations with Vitale just before a law got changed in committee to benefit the ticket broker, who was secretly paying Vitale. And when I say "a committee," of course I mean "DeLeo's committee" — back when Bobby was chair of Ways and Means.

Hey, I just remembered something else about Petrolati and DiMasi: a couple of years back, it turned out that ophthalmologists in the state were contributing en masse tens of thousands of dollars to the two of them, and that — by coincidence! — a law harmful to ophthalmologists' income, adopted by every state except Massachusetts, kept failing in the House.

And you know what? Now that DeLeo is Speaker, one of his first big fundraisers this year was thrown by — would you believe it? — a ballroom full of ophthalmologists with checkbooks in hand.

But that could all be perfectly innocent: maybe those eye surgeons weren't paying up to continue blocking that bill. Maybe they just all have incompetent nephews who need jobs at the Probation Department!

Safety lastOne burning question on the minds of a certain segment of the political community is, now that O'Brien and former MBTA general manager DAN GRABAUSKAS are gone, where are ne'er-do-well, politically connected Bay Staters going to find work? Who's thinking of them?

State of flux A few weeks ago, the state legislature headed into its winter break with what might be called a flurry of inactivity.

The Curse of the Big Dig Call it the Curse of the Big Dig: virtually every politician with statewide significance who has over the years become intertwined with the Central Artery Project (as it is officially known) has seen his or her dreams of higher office dashed.

Saving America from itself The nation’s inability to regulate the corporate class is bringing death, destruction, and economic ruin.

Burn, baby, burn The Phoenix opposed President Barack Obama's efforts to help Chicago win the 2016 Summer Olympics on the grounds that doing business with the International Olympic Committee is always bad news for the host community.

Is it Tim time? Whereas a few months ago it seemed that no one could pose a serious threat to any re-election campaign mounted by Governor Deval Patrick, a recent string of missteps has suddenly made him very vulnerable.

Time to wake up The news that Massachusetts's finances are in even worse shape than previously thought was not exactly a surprise.

Mickey Mouse Multiculturalism Massachusetts treasurer and independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill was off base when he accused incumbent governor Deval Patrick of "playing politics with terrorism" in the wake of Patrick's visit to the controversial Roxbury mosque maintained by the Islamic Society of Boston.

Deval Patrick and the mosque I was extremely disappointed to read your close-minded, ignorant, and bigoted position on Governor Deval Patrick’s meeting with Muslims at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury.

Patrick's paradox Governor Deval Patrick may be the incumbent, but he enters the race for the most thankless statewide job in Massachusetts as an underdog.

Brown Bagging If you are finding it hard to get enthused about the seemingly preordained drubbing that Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley will give to the GOP nominee, State Senator Scott Brown, in the special election for US Senate, you are not alone.

MRS. WARREN GOES TO WASHINGTON | March 21, 2013 Elizabeth Warren was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, aside from the chair and ranking minority, to show up at last Thursday's hearing on indexing the minimum wage to inflation.

MARCH MADNESS | March 12, 2013 It's no surprise that the coming weekend's Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have become politically charged, given the extraordinary convergence of electoral events visiting South Boston.

LABOR'S LOVE LOST | March 08, 2013 Steve Lynch is winning back much of the union support that left him in 2009.

AFTER MARKEY, GET SET, GO | February 20, 2013 It's a matter of political decorum: when an officeholder is running for higher office, you wait until the election has been won before publicly coveting the resulting vacancy.